Not Quite
by WookieeBeta
Summary: Yugi solves the Puzzle, but its inhabitant is not all he's cracked up to be. (PG for mild language; AU; one-shot)


**A/N:** Wrote this a few months ago, set it aside and promptly forgot about it… Unearthed it today when I was looking for something else, thought I might as well go head and post it. 

**Disclaimer: **Wookieebeta does not own Yu-Gi-Oh!. Nor does she own any more Diet Coke, which she is in dreadful need of at the moment. 

**Not Quite**   
_A Yu-Gi-Oh! Alternate Universe fanfic___

  
            Yugi Moto was a good kid. He was one of those students every teacher likes: hardworking, intelligent, and honest. Even if he wasn't the greatest in the class, he certainly gave the most effort.   
            It wasn't just teachers that liked him, either. He was popular with the students, as well. Those big innocent eyes of his marked him as a good person and better friend, and his ever-present grin did nothing to dissuay this opinion.   
            Which didn't explain why he currently had a rather malicious look on his young face, or why a rather extensive setup in the back corner of the men's restrooms was beginning to smoke.   
            "Time to go," he muttered to himself as the first wick caught flame. He snagged his bag from the counter and exited casually, heading toward the cafeteria.   
             BOOM!

***

            "Yug!" Joey shouted, running up to his friend. "What's going on, man? I heard there was an explosion by the cafeteria!"   
            "I don't know," Yugi said, shaking his head. "I had another black-out - I don't remember anything."   
            "You don't sound too good. You all right?"   
             "I'm...I'm fine, Joey," Yugi said, forcing a small smile. It quickly mutated to a frown; the look didn't fit him. "I'm just worried. I mean, every time I have one of my spells, something bad happens. It can't be just a coincidence."   
            The blonde shook his head forcefully. "Nah, man. There's nothing to it. You're just jumping to conclusions."   
            Yugi rounded on his friend suddenly. "Am I? Am I really? Then tell me why every time I black out, something happens - and I'm usually about ten feet away from the thick of it!" His voice was angry, and confused, and scared.   
            "Geez, Yugi, what's gotten you so spun up today? Calm down, buddy."   
            "They haven't told anyone," Yugi said flatly. "But I overheard the teachers talking about it. There was a student in there, Joey," he said, and now his voice was haunted. "In the bathroom. In the stall right next to the explosion. He...he may not make it."   
            "....oh. Man. Man, that's bad. That's really bad. Who could do that? Who would knowingly set a fire in an occupied bathroom?" Joey was outraged, his hands clenching into tight fists at his side. Yugi left him to his anger and slunk away silently.   
            _How can I tell him?_ he asked himself silently. _He wouldn't understand; he wouldn't believe me. But it's true. I'm the one doing all this. The fire last week, and the broken waterlines the week before, and the heat the week before that... I don't remember any of it. Just black, and then suddenly I'm walking away from whatever happened...it's got to be me, there's just no other way!_ He shook his head sadly; he knew what he had to do, and how badly it would hurt his friends and grandfather to learn the truth.   
  


***

            "Mr. Moto? This is Joey." The Brooklyn boy's voice was somewhat shaky. "Have you seen Yugi in the last fifteen minutes?"   
            "Of course I haven't," Solomon Moto snapped, "you know as well as I do where he is."   
            "That's just it, Mr. Moto," Joey said. Even more shaky now. He was skating on thin ice here. "You...may want to turn on your television for a second."   
            There was a quiet click as the game store owner pressed the power button, and the screen came to life.   
             "...news, repeat, breaking news: Yugi Moto, the freshman who turned himself in as the troublemaker who has been causing such a ruckus at Domino City High these past few weeks, has escaped. Witnesses say that he was very calm, sad even, right up until the time officials tried to put him in handcuffs; here is the footage of the scene." A short pause, and then the sounds of a fight as a poorly focused camera caught glimpses of uniformed officers and a few flashed of tri-colored hair. "He escaped, leaving three officers badly wounded. There is a good possibility that he is armed and dangerous. We suggest that all citizens keep an eye out for this young delinquent, and report any sightings of him to the police. Now we move live to Cindy, who is currently in an interview with the Domino City High principal..."   
            "Mr. Mouto?" Joey asked quietly, calm now. "Have you seen Yugi?" 

***

            Two weeks, and no sign of the young duelist appeared. It seemed he had just vanished from the face of the earth.   
             "Where d'you suppose he could have gone?" Ryou Bakura asked in his soft accented voice. "It's not like Yugi to just up and disappear like this."   
            "Yeah, well," Joey snorted, "it's not like him to blow up the school or try to kill three guys, either, and he did that easily enough. I think we underestimated the little guy."   
            "You don't really think he's behind all this, do you?"   
            Joey shook his head with a sigh. "I don't know, Tea, I really don't. I mean, this is all so unlike Yugi, but then again he was acting so strange...always tired, short-tempered even. And those blackouts. He told me right before he turned himself in that he was always out right when something happened."   
            "I hope he's all right, regardless," Ryou murmured. 

***

            Yugi awoke with a start, only to find himself lying on his face in the middle of some deserted forest and feeling rather beaten. It was as though every inch of his body was bruised.   
             "What...where the hell am I?" Under normal circumstances he never cursed, but then this wasn't exactly a normal circumstance. Rolling over, he brought his watch up to his face and read the date. It was the twenty-ninth. If he remembered correctly, it should have been the thirteenth. What the hell?   
            "Hikari has finally awakened," a voice came, deep and dark and angry. Yugi jumped.   
            "Who are you?" he exclaimed. "And what happened to me?"   
A fairly short (but rather tall, in relation to Yugi) figure emerged from the trees. Yugi gasped; other than the height difference, it could have been his twin. "I am the hikari's dark," the figure said simply. "The hikari would not wake, so I hit him." Yugi suddenly realized that this other person was much larger and much stronger than he was, and that they had a rather disconcerting gleam in their eye. Not to mention the complete and total advantage over him, should it come down to violence. He decided to tread cautiously.   
             "And...where are we?"   
            "Hikari asks many questions."   
            "Well, I don't know much. I have to ask."   
            The taller figure sneered. "Hikari is stupid. Hikari is weak and frail. How does hikari live so long?"   
            "I resent that! Just because I've apparently been unconscious for over two weeks and thus have no idea of what's going on gives you no right to - aah!" His words were suddenly cut off as the other figure's fist found his stomach.   
            "Hikari talks too much." 

***

             "You're being awfully quiet, Yami," Ryou said, glancing at his dark in concern. "Are you worried about something?"   
             Bakura's distant gaze found its way slowly back to Ryou's pale face. "It's Yugi," he said reluctantly. "He's been gone three, almost four weeks now."   
            "The authorities are doing everything they can. It's just a matter of time before he turns up."   
            "It's not that," the Egyptian spirit said with a sigh. "I've just got a bad feeling about this whole situation. He was acting strangely ever since he solved that Millennium Puzzle...I don't know, there's just something nagging at the corner of my mind, something I should see but don't."   
            "If a Tomb Robber has a bad feeling about something, that's not usually a good sign," Ryou said.   
            "I never told you this," Bakura said slowly, "but I'm not the only soul who was sealed inside an Item. The Pharaoh was, too. Problem is, no one really knows which Item he ended up in - there wasn't really a way to control it, it just kind of happened."   
            "So you think maybe the Pharaoh is in the Puzzle, and now that Yugi solved it he's become Yugi's yami?"   
            "Right. And...well, to put it frankly, Pharaoh-sama wasn't exactly the most stable of people. He could be violent."   
            Ryou gasped. "Yugi could be in danger!"   
            Bakura nodded. "Exactly. And if he falls to the power of the former Pharaoh, more lives than his could be at stake."   
            "We have to do something, Yami!"   
            Bakura sighed. "There's one problem with that. The Pharaoh...he and I were - are - mortal enemies. He is more powerful than I am; if he were to see me, he would kill me instantly. I'd do nothing but waste my life, and yours in the process."   
             Silence.   
            "Then I'll go."   
            Bakura jumped to his feet. "What? Are you crazy? You could be my twin, he'd kill you on first sight! You can't possibly - "   
            "I have to help Yugi," Ryou called over his shoulder as he disappeared through the door and down the hall. Bakura gave chase, but holding his physical form was tiring, and he fell behind rapidly. In a last-second burst of energy he threw himself into the Ring and fell, drained, to the floor of his soul-room. 

***

             "Unh..."   
            "Hikari should not speak so loudly," the dark spirit (Yugi had finally begun to piece together what was going on, and had come to the rather painful conclusion that this person was indeed his "dark," or his yami, and therefore another ancient Egyptian spirit) said, wiping Yugi's blood from his fist. "Hikari is mine; hikari will do what I say, and nothing else."   
            "Don't you understand? I need to go back! My grandpa - "   
            "Hikari will speak only when I say!" the spirit roared, fixing Yugi with a hateful glare. The young duelist cringed, expecting another blow, but was gratified when it never came. Instead, it was a very familiar voice that he hadn't thought he'd ever heard again that floated through the air.   
            "Leave him, Pharaoh!" Bakura shouted. "Your quarrel is not with the young one. Leave him be."   
             "R...Ryou? Is that you?" Yugi's speech was somewhat slurred due to his split lip and swollen jaw. The dark spirit had been rather brutal in his "lessons."   
            Said spirit's eyes narrowed with hatred. "Tomb Robber," he hissed. He took a step closer to Yugi, and the teen couldn't decide if it was a threatening or protective glint that suddenly appeared in his eye.   
            "I said, leave him alone."   
            "Hikari is mine!" He grabbed Yugi by the hair and hauled him to aching feet; Yugi gritted his teeth.   
            Bakura stepped forward, eyes blazing with fury. "He is a person, Pharaoh! Not property, not a slave - a hikari. A part of your very soul. You cannot hurt him further!"   
            "Tomb Robber cannot tell the Pharaoh what not to do!" the dark spirit roared. For emphasis, he dug long nails into Yugi's shoulder, who gave a quiet exclamation of pain and fell to his knees. "Tomb Robber is nothing!"   
             Enraged by the former Pharoah's abuse of his young reincarnation, Bakura let loose a deadly blast of Shadow energy. It glowed around the Pharaoh for an instant, then shimmered into nothingness as he absorbed it all. Bakura cried out in agony as the Pharaoh returned the favor.   
             "Ryou!" A shadow passed over Yugi's face as his friend crumpled to the ground. "No! No..."   
            "Hikari does not care for the Tomb Robber," the dark spirit snapped, but somehow his voice was not quite so hateful; somewhere deep inside, there was a hint of tenderness that slipped through and reached Yugi's ears. "The Pharaoh does not wish it."   
            "Then does Pharaoh wish to hurt hikari?" Yugi asked quietly, spitting out blood. "The Tomb Robber is my friend. I care about him. If you hurt him, you hurt the hikari."   
            The dark spirit looked confused. "Hikari does not hate the Tomb Robber?"   
            "No," Yugi said, shaking his head, "hikari doesn't hate anyone."   
             "Not...not even the dark?"   
            "Not even the dark."   
             Silence.   
            Yugi could tell the former Pharaoh - for that was obviously what he was, judging by his attitude and by Bakura's words - was turning things over in his mind. It took a few minutes for him to reach a conclusion.   
             "Then...hikari will forgive the dark for hurting him?"   
            Yugi gave a faint smile. "Of course." _Whoa,_ he thought. _Are there supposed to be three of him?_   
            "And for covering the hkari's light? For locking him away?"   
            Yugi nodded. This served the dual purpose of answering the dark spirit's question and multiplying the three figures into six. _Nope,_ he decided. _Definitely not._ Slowly, the spirit's glowing eyes and careful voice faded away into nothingness. 

***

            "...out cold," someone said.   
            "Who wouldn't be? All but starved for four weeks, and treated like a slave on top of that - it's a wonder he's in as good shape as he is."   
            "He'll be fine," a British voice said. "Bakura's been talking to the Pharaoh. He's thought things over a bit and decided that maybe he doesn't hate Yugi quite as much as he thought - or so Bakura says. Personally, I think it was the death threats that changed his mind."   
            "If you harm so much as one hair on his head ever again, I swear to Ra I'll banish your soul back to the Shadow Realm where it belongs," Joey said in a fairly accurate imitation of the Tomb Robber.   
            Tired of listening to the conversation and not understanding any of it, Yugi cracked open his eyes and was rewarded with a brilliant light.   
             "Would someone please tell me what's going on?" he asked.   
  
             Several rooms away, Bakura could have sworn he saw the former Pharaoh's ears prick up.   
            "The hikari," he said simply.   
            "Yes. Yugi is awake," Bakura confirmed through his link with Ryou. "And I think now would be a good time to explain things a bit, don't you?"   
            "Dark does not agree with anything the Tomb Robber says," was the flat reply.   
            Bakura raised an eyebrow and turned to leave. "Then you don't think the hikari is beautiful and perfect and yours, all yours and forever yours?"   
            A stuttering Pharaoh was left standing alone. 


End file.
